This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 58 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key new and ongoing events, including:

Contents
18 Editorial
19 Application of social science in the response to Ebola, Équateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
23 Lessons learnt from Ebola virus disease surveillance in Équateur Province, May–July 2018
28 Preventing the international spread of Ebola virus by comprehensive, risk-informed measures at points of entry and compliance with the International Health Regulations (2005)

Of the 1,721 new asylum seekers registered at the Refugee Desk in Kampala, 959 were Somalis, 568 Eritreans and 65 Burundians indicating a continuous and onward trend compared to previous months.

3,713 asylum seekers from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were recorded in the south west and mid-west operations, which was lower than previous months. The main reasons of flight included tension and violence in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces.

15 December 2018: On the road between Ouagadougou and BoboDioulasso, a Canadian aid worker traveling to Togo for a humanitarian project with the organisation Zion’Gaia went missing.
No further details specified. Source: aOuaga

Burundi

24 December 2018: In Kinindo commune, Bujumbura Mairie province, Burundian soldiers arrested an employee of the NGO Handicap International while he was at a bar. There is no indication as to why he was arrested. Source: SOS Averages Burundi

During the month of December 2018, 3,637 persons from South Sudan,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi arrived in Uganda, with the majority from DRC. The humanitarian situation remains unpredictable in South Sudan and the DRC.

Refugees from South Sudan continue to report fleeing primarily out of fear of attack by fighters from either side of the conflict inside the country, while those from DRC report inter-ethnic clashes and fear of post-election violence.

The current outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the second deadliest in history, killing more than 400 people and infecting hundreds more. Its location in both an active conflict zone and a busy border region has created what one of those leading the response describes as a “perfect storm” of risk for central Africa.

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, Democratic Republic of the Congo persists and continues to be closely monitored. Since our last report on 8 January 2019, 33 additional EVD cases (32 confirmed and 1 probable) and 25 deaths have been reported.

DAKAR/GENEVA, 16 January 2019—At a high-level meeting in Dakar, Senegal, UNAIDS, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries in western and central Africa to do more to stop new HIV infections among children and adolescents and increase HIV testing and treatment coverage.

Countries of asylum hosting refugees from the DRC have been generous in maintaining an open-door policy and in securing asylum to old and new population groups. Protracted displacement, however, continues to deplete already limited national and local resources. Existing camps and sites in asylum countries are overcrowded. Some 60,000 Congolese refugees have specific needs and problems, a significant proportion are children who are at risk or who require additional support.

The requirements presented in this funding snapshot refer to the 2018 Revised Regional Refugee Response Plan covering the period January to December 2018 available at http://reporting.unhcr.org/publications

Accommodation in Nairobi, where LGBT+ refugees were forced to flee after attacks at a camp, was criticised as unsanitary and crowded

NAIROBI, Jan 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - LGBT+ refugees in Kenya on Friday accused the United Nations of failing to provide adequate shelter and protection after they were forced to flee attacks at a refugee camp and relocated to an abandoned school on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi.